YouTube Giving Filmmakers A Shot At $500,000 & A Trip To The Venice Film Festival

YouTube, Ridley Scott and Emirates are giving online filmmakers, video makers and story makers the opportunity to go all the way to the Venice Film Festival, and even win $500,000 towards their next great project and the opportunity to work with Ridley Scott and a world class production team.

Today it’s easier than ever to make create a film, make a video, tell a story and put it in front of an audience via the web. YouTube, Ridley Scott and Emirates want to take things to the next level and give online filmmakers, video makers and story makers the opportunity to go all the way to the Venice Film Festival, and even win $500,000 towards their next great project and the opportunity to work with Ridley Scott and a world class production team. Pretty sweet, right?
Nate Weinstein, entertainment marketing manager at YouTube, announced ‘Your Film Festival’ on the YouTube blog. He writes, “Starting February 2, you can submit your short, story-driven videos (15 minutes or less) on YouTube.com/yourfilmfestival. Entry is free and open to people 18 years of age and above, and all genres and formats are welcome: live action short, animation, documentary, web-series episode, TV pilot – you name it. Your video must be story-driven, and cannot have been publicly shown or distributed prior to January 1, 2010.”

Submissions close on March 31 at which point Ridley Scott’s Scott Free team will narrow down the submissions to 50 semi-finalists. Then the YouTube community will vote for their favorites to select the 10 finalists, who will have their films screened at the 2012 Venice Film Festival. A jury, led by Ridley Scott, will select the grand prize $500,000 winner. You can find the official rules on the Your Film Festival YouTube channel.

YouTube has helped catapult many-an-aspiring filmmaker to success. Check out the video below to see how some of YouTube’s most viral filmmakers experienced success on YouTube. Do you plan to enter Your Film Festival on YouTube?

Megan O’Neill is the resident web video enthusiast here at Social Times. Megan covers everything from the latest viral videos to online video news and tips, and has a passion for bizarre, original and revolutionary content and ideas.